The invention relates to building heating and cooling and more particularly to a heating, cooling and hot water system utilizing solar energy.
A great many systems have been suggested for harnessing solar energy to heat and/or cool a building space, and to provide hot water for domestic use. Numerous such systems have used a liquid such as water as the medium for absorbing, transporting and storing heat.
Some of these prior systems have made use of absorption type cooling apparatus which is fired by solar-heated hot water. The cooling apparatus has in turn provided air conditioning for the building space. For example, a test townhouse installed by the National Bureau of Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce, at Gaithersburg, Md. utilizes such a system, with a hot water tank storing solar heated water for use in space heating, domestic water heating, or space cooling. The system is outlined in an April 1976 publication of the National Bureau of Standards entitled "Solar Energy".
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,221,971 and 4,010,620 show absorption type cooling devices wherein solar energy at least in part provides heat for the absorption cycle. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,242,679, 4,007,776 and 4,015,962 also show cooling utilizing solar energy.
Some of these prior solar energized systems have proven effective and some have not. In general they have not been structured to provide the efficient solar operated heating, cooling and domestic hot water provision of the present invention described below.